A Hard Choice
by Team Dragon Star
Summary: After a huge argument with Videl, Gohan vowed not to save her again but when she and Pan are suddenly kidnapped by an old enemy, he rushes to save them. But will he save Videl or let his feelings show?


**Disclaimer: Team Dragon Star does not own Dragon Ball.**

**Also in this story, Pan is Goten's twin sister.**

...

Gohan sat down on a high hill with his head buried in his arms. After his argument with Videl,he was just too upset to go to home.

_..._

_Flashback_

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" Videl yelled after Gohan defeated the ringleader of the gang that she had been fighting.

"Why can't you except that everyone needs help, Videl?" Gohan screamed back. He was tired of her thinking that she could take on entire criminal organisations by herself... it was clear that there would've been no way that she could've succeeded in defeating them had he not been present. He was tired of letting her try and push him around when she didn't know the danger she was in, most of the time.

"I don't need help! My father is..."

"The man who defeated Cell, sure, but why are you so ungrateful?" Gohan asked her angerly. Videl gave him the hardest glare.

"Just leave, Gohan! The city doesn't need you, the world doesn't need you, and most of all I don't need you!" Videl said bitterly as she turned her back to him, while Gohan looked at her in shock and floated up to the air.

"I'll go but remember this, if you're _ever_ in trouble, Gohan _or_ Saiyaman won't be there to help you!" Gohan yelled angrily as he flew away, however unbeknownst to him Videl wiped a single tear that was trickling down her cheek away.

...

_End Flashback_

Videl's bitter words echoed through his head as he flinched at them. Each one of her words made him grow slightly sad and angry.

"Videl..." he whispered sadly as he gently massaged his temples, looking at the beautiful sky above him. The sun was just starting to set, its rays lighting up the sky in a brilliant shade of orange. If not for the situation that he was in, Gohan would've taken a little longer to admire the picturesque moment however that did nothing to stop him from slightly basking in its warmth.

Feeling somewhat better, Gohan levitated slowly into the air as he began travelling towards his house. The gentle warmth of the sun was slowly burning the stress out of his body, and suddenly he wanted nothing more than to fall into a deep slumber.

Almost on autopilot, he flew threw the open window of his room before kicking off his shoes and laying down gently on his bed. Not even a minute after he had closed his eyes, had he felt someone hurriedly shaking him.

Opening a blurry eye, Gohan was surprised to his shaken mother frowning worriedly. Sitting up on his bed, he spoke after he noticed that she still hadn't spoken a word.

"What's wrong, mom?" he asked, unsure of what to expect. However the grave look which she gave him sent chills down his backside.

"Where were you Gohan?" Chichi asked quickly, "haven't you heard yet?"

Confused, Gohan attempted to calmly gather information. "What happened, did I miss something?"

"It's your sister, she and Videl have been kidnapped!" she exclaimed as Gohan rapidly sprang onto his feet.

"What! How? I thought Pan was here with you?" he said alarmed as his face fell into a frown when he saw Chichi shake her head.

"It was on the news a little while ago, Videl and another girl have been kidnapped... and Pan said she was going to meet up with her, and she's still not come back! I was so worried, I thought they'd taken you as well!" Chichi voice wavered slightly.

"Hang on mom, Pan's pretty strong. I don't think that anyone could just kidnap her... and same with Videl, they're not the easiest targets."

"Can't you do that Ki thing then?" Chichi asked, clearly having had thought out the situation beforehand.

"Great idea mum, I should be able to just sense Pan's Ki and then rescue them," Gohan nodded ever so slightly.

Focusing properly, he tried to find his sister's Ki signature only to realise that he couldn't feel anything. Balling his fists in concentration, he sighed in relief when he managed to find it-weak and rather faded-but still there.

"Got it mom," he gave her a reassuring smile. "I'll be right back with them."

Chichi gave him a nod of her head as he put on his shoes, "just take care of yourself too Gohan. I don't want you getting hurt."

"I'll do my best," and with that he flew at top speed towards the the Ki signature he felt. From what he could sense it was far away from other life, likely in a desolate place. There weren't any animals nearby either, it was just empty for the most part.

As he was flying, he noticed two other Ki signatures appear right behind him. Looking back, he saw Goten and Trunks flying at high-speed towards him with rather worried expression on their faces. Somewhat relieved to have found company, he slowed down enough for them to catch up to him.

"You guys heard too," he muttered slightly. They nodded.

"Yeah, when I couldn't feel Pan's energy anymore... I just assumed that the other girl was her," Trunks said clenching his fist.

"I didn't want Trunks to go by himself, so I tagged along!" Goten said cheerfully, bringing a strong sense of contrast to the otherwise-dark situation.

Gohan nodded gracefully as he looked ahead, almost surprised to find a haunted-looking castle standing in front of them. The younger boys cowered slightly, but to Gohan it was another story. Eyeing it carefully, he quickly realised that it was the same castle where he was taken by Garlic Jr. when he was little.

Descending to the ground, the large door of the castle was sent buckling towards the floor as Gohan kicked it down. Following the eldest, Goten and Trunks slowly tiptoed inside the very old castle, frightened to find dust and cobwebs everywhere.

"Welcome back, Gohan." Gohan's head snapped up as the voice reverberated throughout the castle. Instantly recognising the voice as that of Garlic Jr.'s, Gohan fell into a martial arts stance without missing a beat.

"Where are you, Garlic?" Gohan barked as the boys also dropped into a similar stance.

"Keep walking forward!" he cackled maniacally, causing Goten to shudder slightly. Running further into the room, the three were surprised when they found that total darkness soon enveloped them.

Waving a hand in front of his face, Gohan was disappointed to find that he could barely see it. Fighting in the dark was never a good thing.

Suddenly a large light was turned on, revealing a smiling Garlic by the balcony. "It's been awhile hasn't it, Gohan?"

Gohan growled. "Where is my sister?" he asked him furiously.

Garlic smirked and gestured towards a small glass tube that a shrunken Pan was trying to break out of. The teenager kept pounding on it angrily until she saw the boys, a joyful smile lighintg up on her face.

"Gohan!" she yelled before trying to break through with renewed passion, however it was to no avail.

"C'mon big sister, break through it!" Goten yelled encouragingly as Pan pounded on it with more of her strength.

Angrily, Gohan shot a Ki-blast at the jar however the yellow ball of energy merely dissipated upon touching the strange glass tube.

"Nice try. I made it from Ki resistant glass, do you like it?" Garlic asked tauntingly.

"Where's Videl, then?" Trunks demanded as he glared at Garlic, who only began to laugh.

"That brat was tough but we took care of her easily." he said as the Spice boys came out with Videl. Salt was holding her by the scruff of her shirt, her eyes were close and looked beaten up. Glancing towards the three of them, Salt looked as though he was in the middle of a grand feast before he threw her carelessly at the wall.

"Trunks, go and help Pan," Gohan ordered calmly as the lilac haired boy ran over to her, before looking at Goten. "You're gonna help me get Videl."

Before Goten could respond a large crash came from the back of the room, as two figures slowly stepped out. A certain green Namekian and flame-haired prince emerged smirking slightly as Gohan's face lit up.

"It's Mr. Vegeta!" Goten said happily as he threw his hands up in the air, making Vegeta's smirk widen.

"Who did you think it was? The boogeyman?" he said, before facing Garlic and spitting on the floor of the castle.

Piccolo dropped his weights and looked at Garlic, a bemused expression on his face. "Seems like you don't like the dead zone too much."

"It's terrible down there, of course. This time though, I have escaped using a little spell from a friend. So no matter how many times you put me back, I'll still get back out! But this time I came for a certain snot-nosed brat who got me stuck in it last time," Garlic glared slightly at Gohan. "He is my only concern. The rest you can be handled by my Spice boys."

Vegeta's eyes widened threateningly as he braced his arms, calling on his Ki. "Don't think I can be tossed around like a piece of trash! I am the Prince of all Saiyans and nobody dares to look down on me!" A second later the entire castle was absorbed in a bright flash, as Vegeta quickly jumped into his Super Saiyan form.

Goten and Piccolo followed suit as they powered up, however when Gohan tried to do the same he found that he couldn't... it just wasn't there, his Ki. It had almost disappeared... hell, he could barely even feel it.

Garlic gave Gohan a hard smirk, his composure smug.

"I see the magic I used on the girl worked. Your souls resonated together in an odd fashion, so I managed to temporarily bind them-when you are weak, so is she. Guess what that makes you now?" Garlic asked in a mocking tone as Gohan looked towards the castle's floor.

Videl cracked open her eyes to see Gohan. She used her arms to lift herself up a bit. "Gohan..." she said. Gohan looked at her. "I'm so sorry for yelling at you. I do need you. I-I love you." she told him on the brink of crying, the pain visible in her eyes.

"I love you too." he said firmly as he stood defiantly against Garlic. He could feel each little bit of his power returning and even more. Powering up to Super Saiyan, he took a quick glance at the others.

The rest of the Z-fighters had each fought a very short-lived battle against the Spice boys. In the end, the Saiyans and Piccolo had pounded the Spice boys. Vegeta had fired a ki blast at each of them, which completely annihilated as evidenced by the corpses lying on the floor.

Trunks seemed to have found a remote, and Gohan managed to watch as he pressed a button on it, freeing Pan who flew to him in a thankful embrace. However Gohan soon discovered that while he was preoccupied, Garlic had powered up to his limit-using his fury as fuel in order to do so. With a mighty grunt the evil creature leapt forwards at full pace and blasted towards Videl, however Gohan managed to teleport in front of Garlic at the last second, taking the hit.

His eyes rolled to the back of his head, as he collapsed to the empty floor of the castle, falling out of his Super Saiyan state as he did so. Videl's eyes slowly widened with fear as she shivered, mustering up the courage to look towards a smirking Garlic.

Slowly crawling forwards and then springing onto her feet and sprinting towards her friend in desperation, Videl yelled, "Gohan!"

Garlic landed besides her before making his way over to her, slowly and threateningly. The maniacal grin on his face widening with every step forward that he took. "Why don't I finish what I started?"

Videl saw red... Gohan was gone-he could be dead. And this monster, this _thing_, in front of her was responsible for taking him away from her. Clenching her right fist in fury, she gathered all the Ki she possibly could and thrust it into Garlic's approaching stomach. The vile _monster_ was sent flying backwards through one of the castle's walls before crashing to the ground.

"W-Why you little..." he started and fell unconscious.

Videl looked around gratefully, before falling to one knee. Eyeing his body close to her, she scuttled over to him and placed a hand on his neck-searching for his pulse. He didn't have one. Hot tears slowly dripped down her eyes as she felt a large hand place itself on her shoulder.

Turning to the side slightly, she saw that it Piccolo. Catching his morbid gaze, she shuddered as the he shook his head sorrowfully.

"No! He's not dead! He is not!" she yelled and placed her head on his chest. "I love him," she whispered. A tear fell on his lifeless body. Pan was bawling into Trunks' chest while the too two boy's swallowed, attempting to hold back the tears and follow in Vegeta's emotionless example. Piccolo's gaze was sad, but at the same time as elusive as always-undecipherable by her eyes. Suddenly Videl felt something jerk itself onto her hand, looking up from the ground she was taken aback at what she saw.

"Gohan?"

...

**Author's Notes: This chapter was brought to you by Gohan's Saiyan Warrior.**


End file.
